PORTLAND (WGME) — School districts across Maine rely on a lot of different funding streams to help keep the programs children rely on going and the buildings they learn in open.
Marie asks the I-Team:
“You did a story recently about old school buildings and the lack of funding to fix them. I remember the casinos saying how all this money for schools would be coming in if we agreed to let casinos in our state. What happened to those funds?”
Maine has two casinos, the oldest of which is nearly 20 years old.
Over the decades, they’ve both brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the state.
Marie is right, part of that revenue is earmarked for education.
Here’s how that revenue distribution breaks down:
State statute directs 46 percent of the casino’s net slot machine revenue and 16 percent of the casino’s net table game revenue be divided out to various municipalities, organizations and funds.
As for K-12 funding, 25 percent of the slot revenue set aside goes to essential education programs in the state and 10 percent of the table game revenue.
At Oxford Casino alone, that money has added up to nearly $15.5 million so far this year.
That money is set aside for essential education programs, and once it’s distributed to local districts, they get to decide how best to allocate the resources.
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